1948: BR’S FIRST YEAR

Nottingham, August 1948. An Ivatt ‘Flying Pig’ stands at the city’s Midland station. Aside from the British Railways branding, and the unorthodox design of the locomotive, this typical railway scene could have been recorded a decade or more previously.

The rake of ex-LMS corridor and noncorridor stock recalls the railways’ Grouping glory days, while the gas wagon coupled immediately behind the ‘4MT’ is typical of the eclectic mixture of traffic which prevailed until the advent of containerisation. Could any of the passengers standing on the adjacent platform imagine that, 20 years hence, steam would be eradicated from the main line altogether, or that the railways would undergo the most rapid and comprehensive change for a generation? Probably not.

Nonetheless, the signs are already there. Ivatt’s Class 4 ‘Moguls’ were a radical departure from London Midland locomotives of old and, indeed, were the last new design of locomotives for the LMS – although only three of the 162-strong class were actually built under LMS auspices (SR474). The high running plate and extensive external pipework more or less set the template for the myriad BR Standards that were to follow, and the move away from elegance towards austerity and ergonomics set a trend from which the railways would not escape until the end of steam.

Six of these locomotives actually survived into the last year of BR main line steam, with preserved example No. 43106 lasting until June 1968, when it was withdrawn from Lostock Hall.

Even more radical were the 22 Stanier ‘Black Fives’ fitted with Caprotti poppet

valve gear. No. 44755 was one of an initial batch of 20 ‘5MTs’ fitted with the valve gear in an attempt by the LMS to increase mileage between overhauls. A further two, Nos. 44686/7, were fitted with improved Caprotti gear in 1951.

The success of these trials would result in 30 BR Standard ‘5MTs’ – the design of which was heavily based on the last two ‘Black Fives’ – being similarly fitted, as was the one-off ‘8P’ No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester.

JOHN P. WILSON/RAIL ARCHIVE STEPHENSON Ivatt ‘4MT’ (still ‘4F’ on the cabside) No. 43018 at Nottingham Midland with a local service from Derby, including a gas tank wagon, on August 19 1948. AUGUST 1948On August 15, the Republic of South Korea (South Korea), was established. After the Second World War, the Korean peninsula was divided into the Soviet (north) and American (south) zones. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), was established the following month, on September 9.

T.G. HEPBURN/RAIL ARCHIVE STEPHENSON Caprotti ‘Black Five’ No. 44755 at Kingmoor shed on August 28 1948.